What Are You Scared Of? - By John Lysaught -
"I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears" (Psalm 34:4).
The definition of fear is that it is an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat.
Fear is something we deal with all the time. Because of this, we get anxious and can suffer from anxiety due to fears. My biggest fear, which causes anxiety for me, is the fear of the unknown. It is the unknown that scares me. My fear isn't rational or based on anything tangible, but I still fear the unknown in my life.
Like Psalm 34:4 above says, the Lord will deliver me from my fears. And when I ask Him to, my fears go away because I put my trust in Him. But sometimes I lose that focus, and fear comes creeping up in my mind again of the unknown, those things of which I have no control over.
Fear, at its root, is propagated by Satan and his minions. They use the things of this world and the unknown to cause us to fear. If we can remember that God is in control of everything and directs everything for the culmination of the end of our time on this earth and the betterment of us, life is not so fearful. We forget this sometimes and slip into the mindset of fearing things.
I'm not talking about fear of venomous snakes, spiders, or things like evil people, etc., but I am talking about those fears that are spiritual in nature. I'm talking about those things that interrupt our close relationship with our Father in Heaven. These things, again, stem from the actions of Satan to cause our trust in God to lead us, out of fear, to be minimized or nonexistent.
There is no doubt that Satan is in control of the ways of this world. We are strangers in a foreign land, pilgrims in our journey to Heaven who are filled with obstacles originating from Satan. He will insert fear into our lives to interrupt our relationship and trust in our Savior and our God. This influence of fear that Satan puts in us can cause us to question the validity of God's power in our lives and/or the freedom Jesus gave us when He gave His life for us, to be the propagation for our sins.
Having and succumbing to the influence of fear in our hearts is easy, and fighting these seeds of fear takes daily effort to overcome and avoid. Each day we need to renew our minds to the things and promises of God to battle the fear that can easily overcome us. It is the renewing of our mind that refreshes our soul and spirit to be God-focused each and every day.
Do you notice that when you are more in tune with God that fear is not effectuating its influence in your life? Do you notice that you have fear when your relationship with God has taken a backseat in your lives? If we keep the Lord as our focus, we will maintain a strong relationship with Him and will place our trust in Him to help us overcome fear.
Being in tune with God allows God's power and influence to affect your innermost being in a good way. When we closely walk with God, fear has no room to affect us. When God is a priority in our day, fear won't come floating into your mind and then your heart.
We must always be on guard against things that can cause fears we may hold. We need to remember that God is active in our lives and will never introduce fear into our hearts. He is the God of light, and fear is a product of darkness. We need not fear anything spiritual in our lives because God is on our side and wants us to live under His light, not the darkness that Satan introduces to us to try to influence us to have fear.
John 16:33 tells us, "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world."
The opposite of fear is peace. We cannot get peace from the world because the world is designed to cause us fear under the influences of Satan. We find peace in being under the wings of Jesus, under His protection and love that stomps out the fear Satan wants us to have.
When we have the peace of Jesus, our mindsets are on the positive outlook on life and circumstances. When we trust Jesus and obey what and how he wants us to live, we cannot help but not be affected by fear, because in Him is pure and unending love, and love has no fear attached to it.
When we choose peace over a spirit of fear, we are choosing to live under and for God. Our lives were bought with a price by Jesus so we wouldn't have to fear anything that Satan may throw at us in this life. We are held in the hands of Jesus because, with Him, there is nothing to fear.
When we come under tribulations, this can cause us to be affected by fear, but, as John 16:33 says, "... be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." You get that? We need not fear because Jesus has overcome the world; and because of this, we can live and know that regardless of what we face from the world, we can have that holistic knowledge that Jesus was victorious over death and opened the way for us to have that peaceful relationship with Him.
When we find ourselves falling into the trap of fear, this is when we should refocus our minds and rejoice in the Lord for who He is - Jesus, the Savior of the world, for those that believe in Him and His atoning sacrifice for our sins.
The world will not remedy fear. Only Jesus can. The world cannot provide us the peace that Christ can. The world is a propagator of fear, and we are not bound by the chains of the world. And because of this, we can trustfully exclude ourselves from the fears the world wants us to have, and instead fall down to the feet of Jesus to give us the peace we need so as not to become a victim of fear.
So, I ask this again: what are you scared of? What causes you to worry and what causes you stress and anxiety? When you know the root of your fears, you can give them to Jesus and let Jesus provide you peace in your heart so troubles are no longer troubles, but a rejoicing heart that knows He has overcome the world.
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